ACTS response to the ‘McCormac Report’
‘Chartered Teachers Matter: Envisioning their Future as Leaders of Learning’, Professor Brian Hudson
Dear colleague
ACTS recently published our response to the ‘McCormac Report’ and Professor Brian Hudson’s paper, commissioned by ACTS, entitled ‘Chartered Teachers Matter: Envisioning their Future as Leaders of Learning’. Please click on the links above to open each paper.
Regards
David Noble, Chair of ACTS
ACTS Winter Conference 2012
Saturday, 4th February 2012
StirlingManagement Centre, Stirling
Swifter, Higher, Stronger – Championing teacher leadership
The 2012 ACTS Winter Conference, sponsored by the Scottish Government, will bring together around one-hundred chartered teachers and other educationists, committed to Scottish education. The aim is to facilitate dialogue and learning around the theme of ‘teacher leadership’.
Workshop topics will include: approaches to improvement and assessment of impact, professional enquiry in education, learning rounds, action learning sets, accomplished teaching, teacher learning communities, professional networks, teachers as researchers, leading for understanding, and effective peer coaching and mentoring.
Such a focus can help build capacity and move forward our aspirations to reach for higher standards and higher quality teaching and learning.
Speakers will include chartered teachers, headteachers, academics, and other educationists from a variety of sectors, who will share their experiences of working in partnership to lead learning in classrooms and schools.
We will find out about, and engage with, the contributions that chartered teachers are making, or could be making, in strengthening the learning capacity of their organisations and communities, through creative teaching and learning, innovation and ingenuity.
The conference programme is now available.
Please select from the following downloads:
Where is leadership located in a profession? What is the basis of professional authority? How is best professional practice validated? Where does innovative practice originate?
If we were to pose such questions in the field of medicine the answer would be very quickly forthcoming: hospital consultants. That cadre of specialists are professional leaders in medicine; they exemplify the highest standards of professional practice; they are the adjudicators of what is best clinical practice; and it is inconceivable that there could be any clinical advance that did not originate in their work or be endorsed by their collective professional judgement.
Consultants in medicine perform three key functions; they engage with patients in hospital and other contexts; they teach students, inducting them into the ways of sound clinical practice; and they undertake research, deepening and extending the knowledge base that underpins medical practice. The primary source of the consultant’s authority is that single integrated knowledge base, which governs all three inter-related aspects of their role in promoting and protecting the nation’s health and well-being.
By comparison, professional authority and leadership in teaching are less easily located. If anything, they are dispersed. There are those who engage with learners in classrooms (teachers); a second group, in separate institutions, undertake the professional preparation of teachers, albeit in cooperation with school-teachers (teacher educators); and a third group, located mainly in universities, undertake research (educational researchers). In this way, the knowledge base in teaching is differentiated. A harsher critic would describe it as fragmented: the three functions that are so closely integrated in medicine are pursued by three different communities in the field of teaching, with occasionally a gulf of mutual incomprehension between them, as is the case, most notably, with regard to researchers in education and classroom practitioners.
How can we bring an end to such damaging divisiveness? How might we create a more integrated professional leadership in teaching? The chartered teacher scheme holds the answer to that question. Like the senior training programme that leads to consultancy status in medicine, the chartered teacher programme is a structured way of enhancing professional practice, of deepening the knowledge that teachers bring to their classroom activities, of strengthening the teachers’ capacity to undertake the rigorous scrutiny and evaluation of professional action through research, and of enabling teachers to participate more actively in the professional preparation and continuing professional development of their colleagues.
The chartered teacher programme is an example of what in the USA is known as the scholarship of practice, similar to that undertaken by hospital consultants. It is through such a scheme that we can ensure that the professional development of teachers is focussed on the improvement of learning, combining accomplished performance as a practitioner with a rich understanding of the evidential base which must underpin effective practice. It is through such a programme that we will identify our leading specialists in teaching and learning. They are our educational pathfinders, our pioneers in professional practice.
It is astonishing that, at a time when the need for authentic leadership in teaching and learning is pressing, consideration is being given to the abolition of the chartered teacher programme. That programme has been internationally recognised and Scotland has been commended for taking such an initiative to acknowledge accomplished teaching. The withdrawal of the scheme after less than a decade is regrettable, all the more so since other jurisdictions in the UK are coming forward with proposals to recognise accomplishment as a teacher. It has to be said, however, that the proposals to recognise master teachers in England are seriously flawed and fail to do justice to the extended professionalism of the chartered teacher in Scotland.
How, then is Scotland’s model of the chartered teacher to be defended? Firstly, we need to go on insisting that the chartered teacher programme is the mechanism for developing in teaching the same kind of integrated professional leadership that consultants offer in medicine. Secondly, we need to continue to press for schools, through the leadership of chartered teachers, to become much more heavily involved in curriculum development and research. Schools are natural settings for such work and the emergence of a strong cadre of chartered teachers should revitalise schools as centres of educational innovation and development.
Thirdly, there is a need to build on the strong partnerships that exist between schools and universities, implementing one of the central recommendations of the Donaldson Report. Collaboration between schools and universities should extend beyond the education and CPD of teachers to include research and curriculum development, and such extended partnership arrangements needs to be underpinned by joint appointments and other forms of staff interchange.
Fourthly, universities need to reinforce their commitment to the chartered teacher programme by making such awards as doctorates in education and professorships in teaching and learning available to those chartered teachers whose contribution to the improvement of educational provision is worthy of such recognition.
And, finally, the GTCS should be willing to award fellowships as its highest professional accolade, in the same way as the specialist medical colleges recognise the professional achievements of consultants.
Gordon Kirk is Emeritus Professor of Education at The University of Edinburgh and Academic Secretary to the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers.
ACTS wish to thank Professor Kirk for taking time during the festive period to write this most welcome article.
The article below, is the latest in a series of posts featuring extended contributions by teachers potentially affected by Recommendation 19 of the McCormac Report. All views expressed are those of the writer. Please consider leaving a comment below, or email actscotland@yahoo.com.
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I note in this week’s TESS that Professor Donaldson welcomes further debate on the subject of chartered teachers. As a chartered teacher I know I am biased towards the retention and development of the scheme, but would like to express my thoughts bearing this in mind.
I am very interested in the Curriculum for Excellence and the thinking behind this development. I support and laud the principles on which it is based. Should it be implemented in full splendour, Scotland will indeed be a country capable of helping shape the future of our world. The problem I feel, is that many teachers are not at a place educationally or cognitively where they can head this development.
I have a three-year Primary diploma, delivered in a college geographically separate from the local university. This was ‘the norm’ for primary teachers of my generation. Completing an MEd and then my chartered teacher submission has transformed how I think. The reflection, research and discipline involved in this has encouraged me to be more creative, critical and analytical not only about my own practice and teaching, but also on where education fits within society.
I feel that this has made me more competent as a professional, able to take on board several points of view and meet needs on different levels and for different people. In practice, I feel many teachers have difficulty moving from the knowledge-based curriculum of ’5 – 14′, to the skills-based idea of Curriculum for Excellence. The skills required of them have often not been developed during their initial teacher education.
The people with whom I have deep discussions on the future of education and how to achieve it are almost always either chartered teachers or those on post-graduate courses. People I meet on CPD courses outwith our authority are also very often chartered teachers, using a holiday or weekend to further their knowledge.
The impact of chartered teachers on the development of education in Scotland will never be easy to evaluate. How can we say we are worth more than any other hardworking teacher? The evidence is, like Curriculum for Excellence, no longer based on a defined set of criteria, but a much wider, dynamic, fast paced combination of thoughts, skills and actions. I sometimes enhance my own practice directly and sometimes encourage colleagues, always trying to reach the next step.
A practical example of this was when our Support for Learning department was last inspected. The teaching members of staff were interviewed as a team. We answered routine questions on IEPs, and how support is delivered and timetabled etc. Once this was over my colleague, also a chartered teacher, said she felt that the inspector had not gained any real insight into what we do. We arranged to continue our discussion with the inspector. Throughout that week he called into the room, discovered what we were supporting elsewhere, and inspected everything very thoroughly. He decided that we merited a 6 in the feedback – the only one awarded in that inspection.
This to me sums up the complexity of ‘chartered teacher-ness’: very difficult to describe, define or measure, but exceptionally valuable. I am the first to agree that the concept of ‘super teacher’ is wrong. In many other teaching contexts I would feel inadequate and inept. It is not helpful to the profession. However, recognition of the ability to think, work and collaborate in a creative, critical, reflective and flexible way is required if Scottish education is to fulfil the potential of Curriculum for Excellence.
A version of the Chartered Teacher programme is exceptional value for the taxpayer. The teacher pays for the course, which is done in their own time, and receives a modest annual renumeration. The teacher, in many cases, continues to ‘fine-tune’ their practice, always aiming for that next step.
Mike Russell, in his keynote speech to the LTS learning festival, said: “An education system is only as good as the sum of it’s parts. Good learning and teaching by inspiring, committed teachers is at the heart of excellent education.”
For me, the best way of making this the norm is to continue to invest in a Chartered Teacher programme; it will pay for itself many times over.
Dear Mr Robertson
As I am sure you will be aware, the recent McCormac Report recommended that the Chartered Teacher Scheme should be discontinued (recommendation 19). I am absolutely appalled by this prospect and would urge you to do all you can to ensure this recommendation is rejected. I speak as a fully Chartered Teacher, having completed my studies 15 months ago at the end of a 3 year period of study with Aberdeen University.
Throughout my studies it seemed very clear to me that the expectations surrounding the role of Chartered Teachers were very closely aligned to the aspirations of the Scottish Government’s flagship education policy, namely the ‘Curriculum for Excellence’. The statements of aspiration regarding what the Scottish Government wishes the Curriculum for Excellence to achieve for Scotland’s young people, as they become ‘successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors’ (Scottish Executive, 2004), correspond very closely with the statements which define the Standard for Chartered Teacher.
It still seems to me that the creation of the Chartered Teacher post was, and is, absolutely key to ensuring the Curriculum for Excellence policy can be securely delivered. Achieving all the aspirations of Curriculum for Excellence will need a driving force of teachers who are committed to raising standards, to exploring new teaching approaches, to supporting colleagues through significant changes, to working collaboratively with education managers, universities and other agencies and to restoring Scotland’s place in the world as a leader of innovative education practice. The Chartered Teacher Scheme is well placed to support these aspirations, and to abandon it now would be to wantonly obscure wonderful new educational horizons that we have as yet barely glimpsed.
I believe what the CT scheme has achieved so far should be recognised as only the beginning. Rather than abandoning it, we should be reviewing it to ensure its future direction builds on strengths and addresses weaknesses. Having been in existence for only ten years, and most Chartered Teachers having been qualified for significantly less time than that, it seems early days to be expecting significant impact from the CT scheme. But with good reflection, planning and collaboration (all traits of a CT, of course) the tip of this iceberg could become the foundation for deep, effective educational and social change.
Access to education is, and always has been, a political issue. There are some who would like to portray Chartered Teachers as a collective, useless millstone around Scottish Education’s neck, but I venture to wonder whether Chartered Teachers are, in fact, a ‘Jack-in-the-box’ who, having popped into view and begun to make their presence felt, are now beginning to worry the existing ‘Education Establishment’.
Those who would rather keep things as they are, might prefer to push that Jack-in-the-box back out of sight. Should we be resigning the future of our education system to the gatekeepers of the past? The sceptic in me, on the other hand, suspects that reasons for abandoning the CT scheme are purely financial in this time of financial crises. However, if Chartered Teachers can help lead the way in developing a new and invigorated Scottish workforce, who can help us stay out of such crises, where is the wisdom in the course of action suggested in the McCormac Report?
On a more personal note, I would like to give you a flavour of the work I am currently undertaking as a Chartered Teacher within my school:
Bringing the P1-7 Science curriculum into line with Curriculum for Excellence
Leading our Teacher Learning Community, which supports staff to engage with new ways of working that reflect best practice and recent educational research findings
Contributing to staff CPD
Empowering pupils through developing a strong ‘pupil voice’ that can express itself in Pupil Council activities within and beyond the school
Developing strong, sustainable links with the surrounding community
Maintaining and developing our link with a school in Malawi
And finally, I believe it is important not to overlook the huge potential that Chartered Teacher research could have. As the CT scheme stands now, all teachers are required to carry out a research project in order to complete their studies. To achieve the greatest possible effect from this work, it would be necessary to develop some way of facilitating links between research projects in order to ensure the research becomes a coherent, progressive body of new understanding that can add significantly to our knowledge of education issues. That most CT research currently remains unseen by all but a very few is a tragedy. Why this is the case would have to be addressed. Supervised and guided by academics, the quality of Chartered Teacher research should not be in doubt and it behoves all those involved to ensure that the research is always relevant. But to pass-by the opportunity of such research would be a travesty.
When I finished my own piece of research I was lucky enough to have a line manager who recognised the potential of Chartered Teacher research and arranged for my work to be posted on Glow. The link is below. I have also attached the abstract which appeared at the beginning of my Work-based Project Report.
I hope you will consider my arguments for retention of the Chartered Teacher Scheme and keep me informed as to the progress of your own, and the Scottish Parliament’s, views on the subject.
Yours sincerely,
Sheila Wightman
Dear sir/madam,
I am writing to you as a chartered teacher (CT) to urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that recommendation 19 of the McCormac Review is rejected. I would like to describe some of my experiences as a CT and why I consider the role of CT to be essential to the health and progression of the education of all children in Scotland. CTs are also crucial to the successful integration and development of new teachers to the profession.
MY EXPERIENCES
I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching children for nearly twenty five years and it was with considerable satisfaction that as a result of my comprehensive submission to the General Teaching Council Scotland I was given the professional award of Chartered Teacher almost three years ago. This award reflects the competence and confidence I have built as a classroom practitioner. In 2007 the Scottish Government described the opportunity to become a chartered teacher as being ‘ideal if you want to develop your teaching skills but stay in the classroom – rather than work towards a management role’. Whilst I know I am capable of being a principal teacher or depute head, maybe even a head teacher, I have far more to offer as a CT.
I witness principal teachers’ and deputes’ energies sapped by managerial tasks delivered to them from on high. Their actions are all too often reactive rather than proactive and almost always ‘top down’. They are left with very little time or energy to devote to innovative practice, to read or undertake research. In contrast I have autonomy. The knowledge, understanding, skill and confidence I have gained through professional critical review and reflection enables me to identify the next area to work on. As a result I can effectively deliver enhanced practice to learners where and when they need it. I can achieve curriculum change in a sustainable, meaningful manner taking account of the school’s ethos and local circumstance.
An important facet of being a CT is the influence one can have amongst one’s peers. I seek to encourage change in my peers’ practice, where appropriate, not only in my own school but across the world. During the last two years, through a Comenius project, I have co-ordinated our school’s cross curricular involvement with five other schools in Europe. I am an eTwinning Ambassador for the British Council and through this initiative I work with learners and teachers all over the globe digitally. It is not my place to ever judge a colleagues’ actions but I am always keen to engage in professional conversation and action, the results of which benefit us all.
ACCOUNTABILITY AND IMPACT
There has been some discussion of the accountability of CTs including questions of the impact we have on learners and peer professionals. I set myself challenging targets and regularly measure my performance against those described in the revised Standard for Chartered Teacher. My head teacher fully appreciates the expertise I bring to our school. He has encouraged other schools within Moray to make contact with us to share our curriculum development especially in relation to International and Global Citizenship or Sustainable Development Education. My school has twice achieved the British Council’s International School Award and are submitting an application for our third EcoSchool’s Scotland Green flag award in the spring. I lead both of these initiatives and many of our activities are cited as best practice in both magazine articles and online. The keenness of agencies such as Education Scotland and the British Council to showcase our work and the achievement of internationally recognised awards is a clear indication of positive and measurable impact.
PUPIL FOCUS
Schools are essentially about learning and teaching. Sadly many recent educational developments in combination with the current economic climate have diverted management from the activities and achievements of learners. CTs are ideally placed to lead learning and teaching within a school from the ‘chalk face’. We serve to maintain rigor, progression and continuity. Being in the classroom each day allows us uniquely to keep a perspective on the impact of all this change on learners, we effectively translate policy into practice. CTs focus on the child and their learning opportunities and experiences no matter the financial or political constraints or whims.
CAREER PATHWAY
I know the professional autonomy afforded to practitioners in Scotland, particularly CTs, is the envy of many of my European colleagues. Our education system, since McCrone, has improved year on year. The McCormac report threatens all that has evolved and I’m certain it will deter many high calibre graduates from joining schools across the country. Would you embark upon a career with no clear pathway of improvement or mechanism to recognise enhanced practice? Worse than this there would be potentially no financial recompense or reward for extra study one may pursue in order to raise ones effectiveness in the classroom. It has oft been cited that well qualified, experienced, critically reflective teachers are best placed to facilitate learning at all levels, so why are we even considering the abolition of chartered teachers?
COACHING AND MENTORING
This aspect of my role is essential to the successful integration and development of new teachers to the profession in Scotland. To draw an analogy; the RAF have a role for specialist aircrew where the best pilots and navigators are retained to pass on their art and skill to the next generation of aircrew just beginning their career. New graduate teachers fresh from university are eager to learn and are highly impressionable. Why not link the specialist teachers working in schools already, i.e. chartered teachers, with these new entrants? Exactly in this vein I have worked as an associate tutor with a local university and I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to mentor and coach emergent teachers. Not surprisingly I also learned from this valuable connection with these young professionals. I can see a clear role for CTs to work alongside newly qualified teachers and students on school experience.
THE FUTURE
Perhaps most importantly the temporary suspension of the CT scheme has given us all a frightening insight into the potential future career development for teachers in Scotland. We would become a goalless community of educators, betrayed and undervalued by local authorities and government. We would be expected to unquestioningly follow orders from individuals who often appear to have very little idea of what learning and teaching actually looks or feels like. Can you conceive of the type of less than ambitious individual such a regime would produce?
Along with 1216 other teachers, as of May 2011, I have invested heavily in my vocation both personally and financially. I feel more stressed than ever in my career and totally undervalued. I am starting to consider alternative careers and should the education climate become even more depressing I’d leave. I still love teaching itself but feel no longer able to promote teaching as a career when the future appears so bleak.
I hope you have time to properly reflect upon this letter and now understand how important it is to retain the chartered teacher scheme. It is essential not only for the future of our Scottish Education system but more importantly it will ensure that young people across Scotland get what they are due…a world class education delivered by world class professionals.
Yours faithfully
Ms Cathy Francis
Chartered Teacher at St Thomas RC Primary, Moray
The CT Futures campaign, instigated by ACTS, is working with Scottish educationists to envision a sustainable future for Chartered Teacher.
At our recent summit, delegates agreed that:
Chartered Teachers’ primary focus should be to lead learning. This may include taking a wider role in Scottish education, perhaps through secondments or development work designed to widen the application of their accomplished teaching and enhanced professionalism. Roles should not include managerial functions.
Potential Chartered Teacher candidates should show clearly their commitment to professional development, with the GTCS continuing to lead development of the scheme and Standard.
New fair, objective and consistent PRPD (professional review and personal development) processes should be used to form criteria to identify potential Chartered Teacher candidates.
As Chartered Teachers negotiate responsibilities with school management, effective and well-planned PRPD processes are essential to ensure high-level professional dialogue and trust.
Forums should be developed where Chartered Teachers can communicate their effective work across schools and authorities.
Chartered Teachers should be involved in teacher networks and research partnerships with universities.
ACTS will formally respond to Recommendation 19 of the McCormac Report in November. In December, ACTS will publish a paper by Professor Brian Hudson envisioning a positive future for the work of Chartered Teachers and the Chartered Teacher Scheme.
Membership of ACTS is free until 31st December 2011. Please email actscotland@yahoo.com.
In his recent report, Professor McCormac recommends the disbandment of the Chartered Teacher scheme. I do not agree with this recommendation and hope that consultation with stake holders will include experiences and opinions such as mine.
I am a Head Teacher who is pleased to have one Chartered Teacher on my teaching staff as well as an additional Chartered Teacher working within Support for Learning. Their contribution to learning is evident within our school, cluster, authority and nationally. Their work is agreed between us through PRD consultation, which is a deep pedagogical conversation guided by the Revised Standard for Chartered Teacher. They are open to ideas and are always keen to contribute to aspects of the School Improvement Plan as well as to develop their own initiatives and interests.
My classroom teacher works tirelessly to enhance learning and opportunities for the children in our school, whether through specific projects such as boys reading, parental engagement or Learning Rounds or generally through contributions to staff development through, for example, ICT update sessions and advice, and thoughtful questions in discussions. Although not formally identified as a mentor to a specific teacher, she regularly supports all staff, and has gained the respect of both colleagues and parents for her experience, up-to-date professional reading and reflective mindset.
In a wider context, she offers twilight CPD sessions to staff across the Authority and has been available online to support the CPD of supply teachers nationally. She has presented at National Conferences though she is reluctant to spend too much time out of the classroom, and some of these have been at the weekend.
I understand that there have been some criticisms of the Chartered Teacher Scheme, but would urge the Scottish Government to look at where it is working well, and find ways to retain the successful elements of it. To abandon it would risk losing both the goodwill and the positive contribution of some very committed class teachers who have chosen to develop their professional skills by following this route.
Mrs Christian Robertson
Head teacher
St Peter’s Primary School
Galashiels.
To the Association of Chartered Teachers Scotland
Colleagues
This Association shares your disgust that members of the McCormac Review ignored the best advice from our profession and opted to recommend an end to the CT scheme. There is no reason given for this in the report and the decision is clearly driven by financial considerations.
The SSTA did recommend changes to the scheme, largely to combat the negative publicity caused by the very few scheme members who seemed unable to practice the excellent teaching their academic work championed. The vast majority of Chartered Teachers prove themselves to be invaluable assets both to their schools and their communities.
We would also point out that any scheme which relies on a candidate funding courses themselves and investing an enormous amount of time and effort into achieving excellence, will only attract the most dedicated and determined of candidates. This commitment and dedication is an asset we should celebrate in Scotland.
The next stage of this process involves negotiation via the SNCT. We will continue to inform members via our website and facebook page. In the meantime if I can be of any assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.
Ann Ballinger
General Secretary
Scottish Secondary Teachers Association
Dear [councillor],
I am writing to you as an Edinburgh resident and Chartered Teacher to urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that recommendation 19 of the McCormac Review is rejected. I would like to relate some of my own experiences of being a Chartered Teacher, why I think the Chartered Teacher Scheme is so valuable and what I think some of the problems are.
I have been a Chartered Teacher for 3 years, having spent 5 years working towards achieving the status. Whilst I am very concerned at a personal level about the implications for my job and salary should the Chartered Teacher scheme be discontinued, I am primarily concerned about the implications for education. I know that I am capable of being a Principal Teacher. However, I feel I have far more to offer as a Chartered Teacher. Principal Teachers are consistently swamped by pressing managerial tasks, whether dealing with staff absence or completing endless paperwork. Their work is largely dictated by immediate needs or imposed tasks, leaving little time or energy for reading, research and innovative practice. The problem is being exacerbated by the move to the faculty structure. On the other hand, the autonomy inherent to my Chartered Teacher role, combined with the knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence I have gained through Masters level study, allows me to reflect on my own practice and that of my department and school and to identify specific areas to focus on for improvement. I am able to identify, through reading and creative thinking, innovative ways of improving the learning experience for our pupils. I am able to devote time and attention to implementing change in a rigorous and sustainable way, based on a sound rationale, rather than being pulled in lots of directions at once as is the so often the case for a PT. The respect I have built up amongst colleagues through my work and status, along with my self-belief, allows me to influence my colleagues and encourage change in their practice, not only in my own department but across the school and authority.
There may well be some Chartered Teachers who do not consistently meet the Chartered Teacher standard. However, I wonder what that perception is based on? As a Chartered Teacher I have never been asked what specialist knowledge and expertise I have, what I contribute or could contribute to the school or how I meet the standard for Chartered Teacher. I would be happy to be more accountable. In fact, I feel disappointed that school management does not more often provide opportunities for me and other Chartered Teachers to contribute to school decision-making and CPD. I generally feel lucky in having a supportive management team who do value what I contribute to the school and have on occasion asked me to ‘share good practice’ at a whole-staff CPD session when they know I have been doing some relevant development work. However, this has usually come about at the suggestion of my excellent PT, who fully recognises the value I bring to the department and school as a Chartered Teacher and who is aware of any specific expertise I have. There is no formal mechanism to involve Chartered Teachers in taking the school forward. School improvement planning is carried out through the traditional hierarchy of SMT, JMT (PTs) and finally classroom teachers, including Chartered Teachers. New initiatives, such as AIfL are often led by a Depute Head who has been ‘trained’ in the new initiative, but who may not have a deep knowledge and understanding of the relevant research and educational theory, nor relevant classroom experience. I would love to see Chartered Teachers being consulted as an integral part of these development processes. A Chartered Teacher focus group could perhaps be created in each school which would be consulted about possible developments and initiatives at the earliest possible stage. If a Chartered Teacher has relevant expertise, he/she could be given the opportunity of leading an initiatve/development or of working in partnership with management to help ensure things are taken forward in the best way possible. There are many ways of enabling Chartered Teachers to make a greater impact, but these require a change in attitudes of managers and in school approaches and structures. If the impact is currently less than was hoped, it should not be assumed that this is the entirely the fault of Chartered Teachers.
Another reason for the perception of some people that Chartered Teachers are not making an impact is that our impact is often subtle and not always measurable. It is often leadership ‘from within’ rather than from above. For example, there have been a number of improvements in the way we teach in my department (a secondary school Science department) which I know have come about due to my input and influence at various stages. However, this has not been as a result of a formal leadership role. Instead, my influence has been through exemplification, input in discussions at meetings or in the staffroom, informal explanation of the rationale for imposed initiatives, a positive and ‘open attitude to change’ which can encourage positivity in others, to cite just a few examples. Much of the time I’m not sure my colleagues themselves realise what the catalyst was for a particular change. For change to be sustainable, there needs to be ownership. The subtle grassroots leadership of a Chartered Teacher can lead to sustained change which is owned by our colleagues and yet the careful and essential part we play in this may go almost unnoticed. This subtlety in our influence is what can make it so effective in promoting lasting change.
‘Harnessing’ the skills of Chartered Teachers should be interpreted very carefully. There are many tasks in schools which need to be carried out but which PTs and senior managers have too little time to take on. The danger is that these extra tasks or ‘responsibilities’ are imposed on Chartered Teachers to make sure we ‘earn our keep’. These may well be essential to the smooth running of the school or even of sound educational benefit. However, they may not make good use of the particular knowledge, skills and experience that we can offer and may well distract or even prevent us from undertaking more valuable work. I would, however, be more than happy for my annual Professional Development and Review to be undertaken in relation to the Chartered Teacher standard and by a senior colleague who understands the Standard. I would be happy to describe how I believe I meet the Standard, providing evidence where necessary (but not death by paperwork). I would be happy to discuss with my reviewer how I might contribute as a Chartered Teacher in the coming year – a discussion between equals, giving due recognition to my professionalism and autonomy in judging where I should focus my efforts, but also giving consideration to school and national priorities.
Finally, I think I should mention that, for a number of years, I have been contracted by the Scottish Government Teacher Recruitment Team to attend careers fairs five times a year to inform people about teacher as a career. Until this year, I had been happy to do this as I could unhesitatingly promote teaching to tentative prospective teachers, not only as an enjoyable and rewarding job, but one which offers a fair salary and a variety of career progression routes, including the Chartered Teacher route. The past year has seen many of the selling points of a career in teaching removed, suspended or put under threat. Salaries are frozen and pension payments likely to increase. Most importantly, though, the move to a faculty structure and the suspension of the Chartered Teacher scheme have taken away the prospect of career progression for all but a few new teachers. These changes have had a significant negative impact on our workload and morale. There is a great sense of betrayal and of being undervalued by local authorities and government. I have always been positive, trusting, optimistic and certainly not cynical. However, I now find myself feeling more stressed than ever in my career and starting to consider other possible careers should the situation become even worse. I still love teaching itself, but no longer feel able to promote teaching as a career to others when the future looks so bleak. Consequently I have resigned from the Teacher Recruitment Team.
I do hope you will give due consideration to what I have written and will fight hard to maintain the Chartered Teacher scheme.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Catherine Williams
Chartered Teacher of Physics and Science, Holy Rood High School, Edinburgh
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